The present invention generally relates to rotary hand tools and a system for attaching rotary hand tool accessories that are often used with the hand tools.
Small powered rotary hand tools that have an output shaft to which an accessory bit may be affixed via a collet system or chuck often used by craftsmen and hobbyists to grind, polish, sand and cut and shape objects. Such tools are marketed under the Dremel® brand by the Robert Bosch Tool Corporation of Broadview Ill. Such hand tools continue to be improved and have become more powerful while maintaining or even reducing their size. As a result of continuing development efforts, accessory attachments have been invented to expand the type of operations that can be carried out. Included in such efforts are a planing attachment as well as a reciprocating saw attachment, which is are shown and described in an application entitled Rotary to Reciprocating Motion Conversion Attachment for a Power Rotary Hand Tool, filed May 12, 2004, having Ser. No. 10/844,467, and assigned to the same assignee as the present invention and specifically incorporated by reference herein.
Both of the above referenced attachments have a preferred angular orientation when they are mounted on the rotary hand tool. For obvious reasons, it is also desirable that the attachments be quickly and easily mounted to the rotary hand tool. Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a system that achieves these desirable attributes in a relatively simple and elegant design.